Steelers ink rookie LB Worilds, make Adams agreement official
Football Betting Lines
07/30/2010 - Pittsburgh, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Pittsburgh Steelers signed rookie linebacker Jason Worilds on Friday, and also announced they have agreed to terms on a two-year contract with veteran offensive tackle Flozell Adams.
Worilds, Pittsburgh's second-round pick (52nd overall) in the 2010 draft, was signed for four years. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Worilds played three seasons at Virginia Tech, where he started 25 games and had 15 1/2 career sacks. He was an All-ACC second-team selection in 2009, when he tied a school record with 38 quarterback pressures.
Adams, whose signing was reported Thursday, is a five-time Pro Bowl selection. He spent his first 12 seasons with Dallas, which drafted him with the 38th overall pick of the 1998 draft.
He has started 178 of 182 regular season games in his career.
Also on Friday, the Steelers released linebackers Lindsey Witten and Johnny Williams, and long snapper Matt Stewart.
Florham Park, NJ (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The New York Jets announced Friday they have signed head coach Rex Ryan and general manager Mike Tannenbaum to contract extensions that will keep them with the club through the 2014 season. Tann
<< Cardinals sign LB Washington
Tempe, AZ (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Arizona Cardinals have signed linebacker
Daryl Washington to a four-year contract, the team announced Friday. Financial
terms of the deal were not released.
Washington was Arizona's second-round pick, 47
<< Iupati joins Davis, Mays and Bowman as Niners picks to sign
Santa Clara, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The San Francisco 49ers completed the
signings of their 2010 draft class on Friday, as guard Mike Iupati followed
offensive tackle Anthony Davis, safety Taylor Mays and linebacker Navorro
Bowman,
<< Celtic signs McCourt to new three-year contract
Glasgow, Scotland (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Northern Ireland winger Paddy McCourt
signed a new three-year contract with Celtic on Friday.
McCourt, 26, had one year left on his current deal. He joined Celtic in 2008,
and has three goals in 19 a
<< Playoff or pay-off? MEAC decision a 'win-win'
Norfolk, VA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - There's a difficult decision ahead for Mid-
Eastern Athletic Conference football, and there may not be a right or wrong
answer considering both of the given options have merit.
"A win-win situation," according
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -Coach Jeff Fisher has one word to describe the theory that the Titans sued Southern California because the NFL team is in the same state as Lane Kiffin's last employer.Absurd.The Titans accuse USC and Kiffin of breaching the c
Texans sign first-round pick Jackson, second-rounder Tate >>
Houston, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Houston Texans have signed cornerback
Kareem Jackson, the team's first-round pick in the 2010 draft.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the Houston Chronicle is reporting
that the deal with
Lightning add F Moore >>
Tampa, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Tampa Bay Lightning signed free agent
forward Dominic Moore to a two-year contract on Friday.
The 29-year-old spent last season split between the Panthers and Canadiens,
tallying 10 goals and 28 p
Wizards re-sign F Josh Howard >>
Washington, DC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Washington Wizards signed free
agent forward Josh Howard to a one-year deal Friday.
Per team policy, terms of the deal were not disclosed. However, TNT analyst
David Aldridge reported ear
Rangers get Guzman from Nationals >>
Washington, DC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Washington Nationals have dealt
infielder Cristian Guzman to the Texas Rangers for prospects.
A story on the Nationals' official website cited Guzman's agent in reporting
the move, which was c
FOOTBALL BETTING : Crabtree's base deal: six years, $32 million
In the wake of the news that the 49ers have signed receiver Michael Crabtree after an extended holdout, there has been not a hint of the dollars to be paid to Crabtree.
And since this means that his agent hasn't leaked the numbers, it means that his agent feels no specific motivation to do so.
Possibly because his agent isn't all that thrilled to have his name on the deal.
So the numbers will come from sources other than Crabtree's agent. And we've gotten our mitts into them.
Per a league source, Crabtree has signed a six-year, $32 million contract. (The total includes guaranteed money, base salaries, and the one-time incentive based on achieving minimum playing time.)
The deal also includes $17 million in guaranteed money.
As reported elsewhere, the deal can void to five years based on performance triggers, wiping out a final year base salary of $4 million. But they won't be easily reached.
The source tells us that, in his first four seasons (including 2009), Crabtree must either qualify for two Pro Bowls, or he must qualify for one Pro Bowl in one year and he must participate in 80 percent of the offensive snaps in a separate year in which the team makes the playoffs.
In other words, if in 2010 he qualifies for the Pro Bowl and the team makes the playoffs and he participates in 80 percent of the snaps, he'll still need to make it to the Pro Bowl or achieve the 80-percent/playoffs in another season.
Since the chances of Crabtree making the Pro Bowl or participating in 80 percent of the offensive snaps this year is roughly zero percent, he'll have three years to get it done.
And it won't be easy. Frankly, he'll be hard pressed to make it to one Pro Bowl in three years with the likes of Larry Fitzgerald, Calvin Johnson, Anquan Boldin, Steve Smith, the other Steve Smith, Hakeem Nicks, DeSean Jackson, Johnny Knox, Percy Harvin, Greg Jennings, Roddy White, T.J. Houshmandzadeh in the same conference for sportsbook betting.
So, by all appearances, it's a six-year deal. And at $17 million in guaranteed money, the per-year guarantee is a tepid $2.83 million per year.
There's another problem with the deal -- it has no mid-tier incentive package. Instead, the additional $8 million that Crabtree can earn (pushing the max value to six years, $40 million) requires the kind of unrealistic, mega-star performances that no rookie is likely to ever achieve.
So while the contract paid to Packers defensive tackle B.J. Raji covers five years and pays $22.5 million, he has the ability (if he's a solid player) to make up the difference between his base deal and Crabtree's five-year, $28 million haul via the mid-tier incentive package in Raji's deal.
And unless Crabtree meets the performance thresholds necessary to void the sixth year, he'll be stuck under contract for another year at a base salary of only $4 million.
There's one other area of concern with the deal. Crabtree, per the source, received no option bonus. Instead, he has significant money tied to a fairly new device known as a "discretionary salary advance," which unlike an opition bonus is subject to forfeiture if Crabtree decides in a year or two that he wants to hold out for a better deal. (We're also told that the 49ers have included language that would make certain escalators subject to forfeiture, too.)
Meanwhile, the deal falls well short of the mark for which Crabtree and agent Eugene Parker were aiming -- the five-year, $38.25 million contract paid by the Raiders to receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey, the seventh overall pick in the draft.
Even if Crabtree successfully voids the final year, he'll make more than $2 million per year less on average than Heyward-Bey.
Thus, as we explained earlier in the day, this is a deal that Crabtree could have done in July, which would have given him a much better chance of making a contribution to the 49ers during his rookie year.
So while the final outcome can be described as win-win, the broader view suggests that it's really a lose-lose situation.
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